1
This suggestion is made on 2/9/13 and represents the state of play at that time.
Some Background:
In the BT universe, mechs are both ubiquitous and rare. They are analogous to medieval knights on war horses. If you are a noble or of a noble house or you were a "black knight" merc, then you would be expected by your lord or employer to mount up and go do battle in their name. Perhaps you're a petty noble on some small moon and bandits are attacking the people you rule and protect. Your squire helps you don your mech pilot suit and get your old mech ready to go out and do battle (think Brian Blessed at the beginning of Costner's Robin Hood). It's a romantic, almost fantasy, setting that has much more to do with days of yore than the future.
If the knight of the noble house vanquished his enemies, he might take their armor as a prize or ransom it back to the defeated foe. If the old noble died while killing the last of the bandits, his mech would pass to his eldest son, and there would be yet another great story in the history of that world.
The Challenge:
Simultaneously make the ownership of mechs more dear, while also providing a venue for experienced teams to fight other experienced teams.
Solution:
Introduce a new type of mission: claiming. If a player enters into a claiming mission, they are risking their mech and all its equipment or a cash ransom.
Implementation:
A claiming match could be any of the other mission types (as of now conquest or assault). The individual or drop commander will need to select a claiming option, and it will need to be confirmed. The mission itself is unaffected by whether it is claiming or not. At the end of the match, the highest scoring player on the victorious team can claim any mech from the defeated team. The second highest scoring player on the victorious team can claim any mech after the highest scoring player has claimed. The player whose mech is claimed could elect to pay a ransom instead, assuming they have enough cash.
There are three changes to the UI required. First is the addition of the ability to elect to be in a claiming match. Second is a change to the post game screen that allows the victor to select a mech. This should not be any more elaborate than clicking on the mech in the team stats list at the end of the match. Finally, there should be a screen shown to the victor claiming a mech showing the value of the mech and its equipment (same as if they sold everything in the mechlab), and allowing them to enter a value for ransom or refuse to offer a ransom. This same screen should be shown to the defeated whose mech is being claimed allowing them to accept the ransom if it is offered.
If there is no ransom offered or it is refused, then the mech and all of its equipment is transferred from the defeated to the victor (note the victor must have an open mech bay or is forced to sell the mech). If the ransom is offered and accepted, then the cbills are transferred instead.
While there is xp awarded as per normal, there are no cbills awarded other than described above.
Purpose:
Increase risk/reward and challenge for more experienced players while making results of a match far more meaningful to its participants, decrease the mission balance issues (sub 5 minute slaughters), and provide a level of achievement and even bragging rights to strive for.
Achievement of Purpose:
This should have a primary and secondary effect, resulting in the purpose as sought. Experienced players and teams will seek this style of play as it is more challenging and thus more fun. Players could boast that they only play in claiming missions, which would either mean they were very good or broke. The elite nature of these missions should elevate the nature of play, which means people will want to spectate (youtube videos, streaming). This should create heroes (the game needs a Sacriel or JackFrags) in the community, which makes people strive to BE those heroes.
Inexperienced players won't need to go up against the elite players. At the same time, if they like the game, it gives them a reason to gain experience, a reason to improve gameplay.
Further Enhancements:
Show number of claiming victories on the player profile both in the game and in the forums.
The Faction element could, and should, be applied to this mechanic, even before community warfare. House and faction stats on number of claims, total amount ransomed, losses, etc. should be maintained and displayed.
Edited by KamikaziChaser, 09 February 2013 - 04:47 PM.
